Video becomes choppy

[Jim_the_Scot]

After about one minute of flawless video in my Zoom box, my video becomes choppy. After stopping my video for about ten seconds, and then starting it again, I will again have about one minute of great video before the problem returns. Only my own Zoom box is affected.

This problem started about two weeks ago. Before that, I have never had a video issue while using Zoom for years.

Details that may help any "helpers": I have rebooted all Internet-related devices. I am no farther from my WIFI router. No new devices have been added to my system. There has been no change in my laptop's hardware or software nor how any settings are configured. I have reinstalled Zoom.

[storyhub]

Without knowledge of the computer system (hardware and OS) this is typically the result of insufficient processing power, poor internet bandwidth, and the use of WiFi instead of using ethernet. That short run of about one minute is the result of buffering.

[Jim_the_Scot]

I cannot fathom why I'd be having buffering issues now when my system's hardware and software has not changed. My video used to be perfect with the same computer system, Internet bandwidth, and WIFI situation.

[Jim_the_Scot]

StoryHub,

Does it help you to know that my computer system, Internet bandwidth, and WIFI connection have not changed from when my video played perfectly to now when it becomes choppy after a minute? 

[storyhub]

You are using WiFi (which is not recommended because of connection instability issues) which can change because of distance between device and router, the fact that WiFI has to double encode and decode video compression, it is a shared radio signal subject to interference from other nearby WiFi signals. If your CPU is too low there will be instability issues with encoding and decoding. If your GPU does not process decoding and encoding with low usage (Zoom demands a lot of encoding and decoding power) that can lead to high CPU temperatures that will give instability. Choppy performance has always been linked to hardware performance. The minimum for minimum performance is a 4 core i5, which barely works well when connected via ethernet. As a minimum I always recommend an i7 with 16GB RAM connected via ethernet. Since you never stated what the actual hardware is I can only make certain assumptions. Generally speaking, Apple hardware does better than Windows hardware and chromebooks are notorious for poor performance.